If you currently use Oracle BI Disconnected Analytics 10g and want to continue to do so, then do not install or upgrade to Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g, Release 11.1.1.3.

54.2.2 Issue with JAR File Size When Moving from a Test to a Production Environment

This issue is applicable when moving from a test environment to a production environment. The Oracle Business Intelligence installation creates a JAR file of approximately 5 GB. JDK has a file size limit of 4 GB. Therefore, when you un-jar the file using the AS command pasteBinary, a crash occurs.

The workaround is to force the pasteBinary command to use JRockit, which does not have a file size limit. For instructions, see Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide.

54.2.3 IBM LDAP Based Authentication is Not Supported on Linux x86-64 and Microsoft Windows x64 (64-Bit)

IBM LDAP based authentication is not supported for Oracle Business Intelligence 11.1.1.3.0 release on Linux x86-64 and Microsoft Windows x64 (64-Bit).

To work around this issue, users must use Oracle WebLogic based authentication.

Oracle Business Intelligence Server fails to start if the connect string used for the connection pool is missing in the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora file.

To work around this issue, ensure that a valid connect string is present in the tnsnames.ora file.

54.2.5 Adobe Flash Player Version 10.1 or Later Required to View Graphs and Scorecards

The Adobe Flash Player is a cross-platform browser-based application runtime environment and is required for rendering graphs and scorecard objects in a browser.

Users must have Adobe Flash Player version 10.1 or later installed on their browsers to correctly view all graphs and scorecards that are generated by Oracle BI EE. Users can obtain information about the version of the Adobe Flash Player that is running on their browser by going to http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/.

The text in the originally published release note is incorrect. The correct text appears in this section.

If you want to use Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management as a data source for the Oracle BI Server, and you want to authenticate using a shared token rather than configuring shared credentials in the connection pool, you must first enable compatibility for shared tokens using the steps provided in this section. If you enable compatibility for shared tokens, do not select Shared logon in the connection pool.

If you do not enable compatibility for shared tokens, and you also do not provide shared credentials in the connection pool, the Oracle BI Server will attempt to authenticate using the pass-through user credentials (in other words, the user name and password used to log on to Oracle Business Intelligence).

Before you begin, ensure that you have the database connection information available for the Oracle Business Intelligence database where you populated the BI Platform schemas using RCU. For example, ensure that you have the host name, port, SID, user name, and password for the database.

To enable CSS token generation for single sign-on from the Oracle BI Server to Essbase or Hyperion Financial Management data sources:

In the Oracle Business Intelligence environment, open setDomainEnv.sh (or setDomainEnv.bat on Windows) for editing. You can find this file at:

Edit epm_components_creation.sh (or epm_components_creation.bat on Windows) to provide required values for ORACLE_HOME, ORACLE_INSTANCE, and JAVA_HOME as appropriate for your environment.

On Linux systems, make epm_components_creation.sh executable using the following command:

chmod +x epm_components_creation.sh

Run the executable epm_components_creation.sh (or epm_components_creation.bat on Windows), and provide the database host name, port, SID, user name, and password as command-line arguments. For example:

To validate that the data was successfully populated in the EPM Registry, execute epm_components_creation.sh (or epm_components_creation.bat on Windows) and provide "validate" as a command-line argument. For example:

epm_components_creation.sh validate

The following output is displayed:

Following required properties are available for SHARED_SERVICES_PRODUCT in EPM Registry:-
mode=FUSIONAPPS
COMPATIBILITY=11120-

Restart the BI domain, including the Administration Server and Managed Servers.

54.3.1 Error When Installing Oracle Business Intelligence Against a SQL Server Database

If you are using an MS SQL Server database when installing Oracle Business Intelligence, then the mds-owsm and bip_datasource JDBC data sources has an invalid test table. This stops the WebLogic Server automatic connection testing from functioning. For example, if the database stops, WebLogic Server does not recognize a hanging or invalid connection.

The workaround is to edit the Test Table Name parameter to allow a SQL string to be executed to test the connection. To do so, set the parameter in the WebLogic Server Administration Console to SQL select 1.

54.3.2 Scale-Out Scenarios Are Not Supported on OS with Different Patch Levels

Scale-out scenarios of the BI domain are not supported on machines that have the same operating system but different patch levels. All machines must have the same operating system patch level.

When using Repository Creation Utility (RCU) with an IBM DB2 Database, ensure that the database schemas created by RCU have the required permissions to use the DataDirect ODBC drivers. If these permissions are not set, then Oracle BI Scheduler fails to start because it cannot query the Oracle BI Scheduler tables. You can find the correct permissions in the DataDirect driver documentation at the following location:

54.3.4 Cannot Install into a Root Drive in a Windows Environment

In a Windows environment, do not specify a Middleware home (MW_HOME) that is at the root of a drive (for example, C: or D:). Instead, install Oracle Business Intelligence into a path that is at least one directory level below the root drive (for example, C:\Oracle).

54.3.5 Scale Out in Silent Mode Fails When Using Configuration Assistant

When scaling out an Oracle Business Intelligence system in silent mode, add the following variables to the [GENERIC] section of the silent mode response file (.rsp):

CONFIG_MW_HOME

CONFIG_ORACLE_HOME

CONFIG_WEBLOGIC_HOME

The values of these variables should be set the same as that of the existing MW_HOME, ORACLE_HOME and WEBLOGIC_HOME variables so that a section of the response file looks similar to the following:

#Specify the Middleware Home location.
MW_HOME=/scratch/biee
CONFIG_MW_HOME=/scratch/biee
#Give the name of the Oracle Home directory. The Oracle Home directory name may only contain alphanumeric , hyphen (-) , dot (.) and underscore (_) characters, and it must begin with an alphanumeric character.
ORACLE_HOME=/scratch/biee/Oracle_BI1
CONFIG_ORACLE_HOME=/scratch/biee/Oracle_BI1
#Give the complete path to a valid WebLogic Server Home.
WEBLOGIC_HOME=/scratch/biee/wlserver_10.3
CONFIG_WEBLOGIC_HOME=/scratch/biee/wlserver_10.3

54.3.6 Antivirus Software May Block the Installation in a Windows Environment

If you are deploying to a mapped network drive on a computer running a supported Windows operating system, then ensure that the antivirus software is not set to block the remote creation of autorun.inf files.

If you attempt to install on a Windows machine that is using DHCP, does not have a primary DNS suffix, and does not have a loopback adapter configured, then the Oracle Business Intelligence installer stops at the screen that prompts for the Administrator user details. This is displayed as a red cross in the tree on the left-hand side of the installer. This issue is caused by the installer not being able to resolve the IP address to a hostname.

The workaround is to configure a loopback adapter or primary DNS suffix.

The workaround is to first install Oracle WebLogic Server in custom mode and only install the Sun JDK (that is, deselect JRockit). The next step is to install Oracle Business Intelligence following the instructions for a 'Software Only Install'.

If the Oracle Business Intelligence installation fails at the creation of ASInstance, then you might need to increase the MaxPermSize parameter. The failure at the creation of ASInstance is indicated by the following log file entry:

An internal operation has failed: PermGen space

To increase the MaxPermSize parameter:

Perform a Software Only installation as described in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence.

Before running the configuration phase, do the following:

Open the file MW_HOME/ORACLE_HOME/oui/oraparam.ini in a text editor.

Locate the following line:

JRE_MEMORY_OPTIONS=" -mx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m"

Increase the numbers for allocating more memory, for example:

JRE_MEMORY_OPTIONS=" -mx1024m -XX:MaxPermSize=1024m"

or

JRE_MEMORY_OPTIONS=" -mx2048m -XX:MaxPermSize=2048m"

Save the oraparam.ini file.

Continue to run the config.bat script as described in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence.

54.3.11 Issues When Installing Oracle Business Intelligence on Windows 2008

When you install Oracle Business Intelligence on Windows 2008, you may experience issues such as OPMN failing to start processes.

The workaround is to run the installation and configuration steps with the Run as Administrator option.

Attempting to install Oracle Business Intelligence on a shared drive might fail, resulting in the following error message:

Installation Failed. Prepare Session failed You may not have enough space on your drive for a successful install. Do you still want to continue?

To avoid this issue when installing Oracle Business Intelligence on a shared drive, start the Oracle Business Intelligence installer from the command line using the ignoreDiskWarning option. For example, on Linux, use the following command:

./runInstaller -ignoreDiskWarning

54.4 Oracle Business Intelligence Upgrade Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to upgrading Oracle Business Intelligence from previous releases. It includes the following topics:

54.4.1.1 Conditional Formatting Might Not Work After Upgrading to Oracle Business Intelligence

If an attribute column's Value Suppression setting (in the Column Format tab of the Column Properties dialog) is not set to Repeat, then the measure is aggregated to the grain as defined by the position of the column with the format defined. This might cause a change in the conditional formatting after upgrading to Oracle Business Intelligence. If the Value Suppression setting is set to Repeat, then the measure column that the conditional format is based on always uses the detail grain of the table view, in which case the conditional formatting works as expected.

54.4.1.2 Translated Upgrade Assistant Help Files Are Not Available

Translated help files for the Oracle Business Intelligence Upgrade Assistant are not available. When running the Upgrade Assistant in a language other than English, clicking Help displays an error.

There is no workaround.

54.4.2 Security-related Upgrade Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to security when upgrading Oracle Business Intelligence from previous releases. It includes the following topics:

54.4.2.1 Warnings Might Be Reported When Upgrading an RPD with Non-English User or Group Names

When upgrading an RPD with non-English user or group names, warnings might be reported in the log file, such as "Group name ??? isn't valid in WLS/LDAP : not migrating this group" or "User name ??? isn't valid in WLS/LDAP : not migrating this user" (where ??? is garbled text).

The workaround is to manually create the users or groups. To do so, see the following instructions in Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition:

For a group:

Create the group as described in Section 2.4.4, "How to Create a Group in the Embedded WebLogic LDAP Server."

Create an Application Role as described in Section 2.5.2, "Creating Application Roles Using Fusion Middleware Control."

Add the group to the application role as described in Section 2.5.2.2, "How to Create an Application Role."

If the RPD group was a member of another RPD group, then create the same Group and Application Role hierarchy.

For a user:

Create the user as described in Section 2.4.3, "How to Create a User in the Embedded Weblogic LDAP Server."

Assign the user to the required groups as described in Section 2.4.5, "How to Add a User to a Group in the Embedded Weblogic LDAP Server."

54.4.2.2 Users or Groups With Names Containing Invalid Characters Are Not Upgraded

When upgrading an RPD, users or groups with names that contain the following invalid characters are not upgraded:

,

+

=

"

\

<

>

;

The workaround is to manually create the users or groups after upgrade is complete, with new names that do not contain the invalid characters. Note that the new names must not contain invalid characters under any circumstances. Failure to follow this instruction requires you to re-install Oracle Business Intelligence.

54.5.1 Prerequisites for Software Only Installation on 64-Bit Platforms

Before performing Oracle Business Intelligence software only installation, you must install the latest Oracle WebLogic Server wls1034_generic.jar in MW_Home with 64-bit JDK. Then install Oracle Business Intelligence in the same MW_Home.

Different types of installation options available for Oracle Business Intelligence are as follows:

Simple Install

This installs 32-bit JVM and 32-bit Oracle WebLogic Server. Oracle Business Intelligence Server is a 64-bit system on 64-bit platforms. Simple Install is supported on the following 64-bit platforms only:

Linux x86-64

Microsoft Windows x64 (64-Bit)

However, for production the recommended installation type is software only install with 64-bit Oracle WebLogic Server and 64-bit JDK.

Software Only Install

This installs software binary files in an Oracle home for later configuration as part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware deployment process. This installation type is required if you want to install Oracle Business Intelligence with a 64-bit JVM on a supported 64-bit operating system.

Recommended installation steps for 64-bit platforms are as follows:

Install 64-bit Oracle WebLogic Server with 64-bit JDK.

Choose Oracle Business Intelligence Software Only Install option.

Once software only install process is complete, select Configure.

Enterprise Install

This installation type is not supported when installing with a 64-bit JVM on a supported 64-bit operating system. Instead, select the Software Only Install type option.

For details, refer to Section 4.4.4, "Software Only Install" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence.

54.5.3 Considerations and Limitations of Enterprise Install Type for Scaling Out Existing Installations

To scale out an existing installation with a 64-bit JVM on a supported 64-bit operating system, do not select the Enterprise Install type option. Select the Software Only Install type instead.

For details, refer to Section 4.4.4, "Software Only Install" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence.

54.6 Oracle Business Intelligence Analyses and Dashboards Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence analyses and dashboards. It includes the following topics:

54.6.1.1 Existing Dashboard Prompts Based on Columns Renamed in the Business Model Do Not Work

If a column is renamed in the Business Model, then existing dashboard prompts based on that column do not work with newly created analyses.

The workaround is to use Catalog Manager to rename the column in the catalog.

54.6.1.2 Gauge Views May Be Cut Off and Not Visible Under Certain Conditions

Under certain conditions, if the size of the canvas assigned to a gauge view is very small, and the legend is set to display on the left, then some of the gauges in the gauge view may be cut off and not visible.

The workaround is to edit the gauge view and change the Legend position to Right, Top, or Bottom. Alternatively, you can increase the size of the gauge view canvas so that all gauges display.

54.6.1.3 Numerical Units on a Dashboard Prompt Slider Might Not Be Translated Correctly

The numerical units (such as million or billion) that are displayed on a dashboard prompt slider might not be translated correctly.

The workaround is to modify the obiprp.promptcomponents.xml file as follows:

Open the obiprp.promptcomponents.xml file for editing. You can find the file here:

ORACLE_INSTANCE\bifoundation\web\msgdb\l_XX\messages\uicmsgs

Ensure that each entry for a numerical unit (such as tag name kmsgSliderBillion, kmsgSliderMillion, or kmsgSliderDecillion) is translated correctly.

Restart the Managed Servers, the Administration Server and all Oracle Business Intelligence Java components, and the Oracle Business Intelligence system components. For information on how to restart the Managed Servers, the Administration Server and all Oracle Business Intelligence Java components, and the Oracle Business Intelligence system components, see Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

54.6.1.4 Some Total Rows in Table View Display Incorrect Totals for Level-Based Measures

In some cases, total rows added to the table view of a report display incorrect totals for level-based measures. When the dimension level of the total is at or below the level pinned in the logical column's levels tab for that dimension, the total row should show the pinned (level-based) value. In other words, the detail rows and the total row should all show the same value. However, the table view in these cases incorrectly shows a sum of the detail rows in the total row.

To work around this issue, use a hierarchical column to display the dimension, when possible.

54.6.2 Actions Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to actions. It includes the following topics:

54.6.2.1 Action to Invoke a Web Service Cannot Use WSDL on HTTPS

A limitation currently exists in the Action Framework functionality when creating an action to invoke a Web service. If the WSDL file for the target Web service is accessible using the HTTPS protocol, then the Action Framework cannot introspect the WSDL file.

The workaround is to make the WSDL file available over HTTP. Secure the target Web service using an appropriate security policy.

54.6.2.2 EJBs in Action Framework Must Be Deployed to the WebLogic Managed Server

A limitation currently exists in the Action Framework functionality when creating actions to invoke Java methods in EJBs. Only EJBs deployed within the same J2EE container as the Action Framework services (by default the WebLogic Managed Server) are available to the Action Framework.

The workaround is to invoke a target EJB. To do so, implement one of the following methods:

Deploy the target EJB to the WebLogic Managed Server in the BI domain (adhering to any license restrictions for WebLogic Server).

Deploy a gateway EJB/Web service on the WebLogic Managed Server specifically to invoke the remote EJB.

Expose the remote EJB as a Web service.

Deploy a gateway Web service on the remote location to invoke the EJB.

54.6.3 Scorecards and KPI Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to scorecards and KPIs. It includes the following topics:

54.6.3.1 No Results Returned When Searching in the Related Documents of Scorecards or Scorecard Components

You can use the full-text catalog search functionality to search in most catalog objects and related documents. Currently, the full-text catalog search functionality searches in scorecards themselves and in the names of related documents, but it does not search in the content of related documents for scorecards.

54.6.3.2 Item Stale Error When Editing a Shared Scorecard in Parallel

When using a shared Oracle BI Presentation Catalog and a scaled-out configuration of Oracle BI Presentation Services, users might see "Item Stale : <scorecard path>" errors, when they edit a shared scorecard in parallel.

The workaround to prevent this error is to turn off the Oracle BI Presentation Services Catalog Attribute Cache. To do so, set the following in the instanceconfig.xml file:

If you use Microsoft Office 2007 with Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office, then ensure that Office 2007 SP1 at minimum is installed. If you do not, you might encounter file interchangeability issues between Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Office 2003.

For more detailed information on versions, see the certification document available on Oracle Technology Network (OTN):

54.6.5.2 Funnel Views Can Be Inserted As Images and Flash Objects

The online help for Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint states that the funnel view can be inserted only as an image. This is incorrect. The funnel view can also be inserted as a Flash object.

54.6.5.3 Default Title Views or Default Data Formatting Not Imported Into Excel and PowerPoint

Default title views or data formatting might not be imported successfully into Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint.

In case of data formatting, this happens especially when the default data formatting is saved using Save as the system-wide default for <column> or Save as the system-wide default for this datatype in the Column Properties dialog in Oracle BI EE.

The workaround for both title views and data formatting is to clear the default box and specify the required data formatting or contents for the title views explicitly.

54.6.5.4 Server Connections Are Not Automatically Shared by Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint

Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint on the same computer share Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office connections. If you create a connection in Excel, then that connection is also available in PowerPoint. However, if you create an Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office connection in Excel while PowerPoint is open, then the connection is not displayed in PowerPoint, and vice versa.

The workaround to create a connection to be shared between Excel and PowerPoint is to ensure that the other Microsoft Office application is closed. Alternatively, you can close both Excel and PowerPoint, and reopen them as needed in order to see connections available in both Excel and PowerPoint.

For more information on installing Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft Office, see Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

54.6.5.6 Data Mismatch Might Occur Between Oracle BI EE and the Same View Imported into Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint

Data mismatch might occur between results displayed in Oracle BI EE and the same view imported into Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint. The mismatch might fall into one or more of the following categories:

The views imported into Excel or PowerPoint use a different sort order compared to the ones displayed in Oracle BI EE.

When filters and prompts are applied, subtotals and grand totals are calculated using report-based totals.

When filters and prompts are applied on measures, and one or more columns are unselected while inserting the view in Excel or PowerPoint, the view displayed might not match the one that is displayed in Oracle BI EE. This happens due to the change in the granularity of the analysis as a result of omitting columns, forcing aggregation of measures and applying the filter and prompts next, thus resulting in a different view of the same data.

The workaround is as follows:

In the case of a graph view, insert the view as an image or a Flash object. Flash is supported only in Oracle BI Add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint.

Ensure that there are no excluded columns in the view definition as compared to the criteria definition.

54.7.1.1 JDBC Driver Throws Unsupported Function for setBigDecimal

Data models that include a link between a data set of SQL query type against an Oracle database and a data set of SQL query type against the BI Server based on a numeric database column (used to create a parent-child hierarchical XML data structure with the SQL query against the Oracle database as the parent data set) fail to execute and return the following error: "Java.sql.SQLException: unsupported function at oracle.bi.jdbc.AnaJdbcPreparedStatement.setBigDecimal."

54.7.1.2 Searching the Catalog from the Oracle BI Publisher User Interface Does Not Work When BI Publisher Is Integrated with Oracle BI Enterprise Edition

When Oracle BI Publisher is installed in integrated mode with Oracle BI EE, searching the catalog from the BI Publisher user interface (that is, the URL is of the form "http://<host>:<port>/xmlpserver/...") does not work and the following message is returned:

Result Not found
Your search - <search criteria> - did not match any documents.

The workaround is to search the catalog from the Oracle BI EE user interface (that is, the URL is of the form "http://<host>:<port>/analytics/...").

54.7.1.3 Guest Sign In from URL .../xmlpserver Not Supported When Integrated with Oracle BI Presentation Catalog

When BI Publisher is configured to use the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog as the report repository, the Guest Sign In from the .../xmlpserver URL is not supported.

A user attempting to sign in to the BI Publisher Guest account encounters the following error: "Error 500 - Internal Server Error."

The workaround to avoid this error is to switch to .../analytics URL and sign in with a named user account.

If you manually enter a repository path to upload the BI Publisher Repository to the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog from the Administration > Server Configuration page, then after you upload the BI Publisher Repository and restart the BI Publisher sever, the path shown for the BI Publisher repository in the Server Configuration page reverts to the default path. However, this does not impact the proper upload of the repository to the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog.

54.7.1.5 Data Model Is Not Editable When Created by Upgrade Assistant

A report that is upgraded from Release 10g to 11g will have a report and a data model created by the Upgrade Assistant. The upgraded data model when seen in the data model editor will not show diagram, data structure and the equivalent code for the data structure. Moreover, the developer or administrator will not be able to edit the data structure. This means that the data model will not allow the developer or administrator to use the Release 11g features editable XML View and Business View.

The workaround is as follows:

Open the data model for editing.

Copy the SQL query statement from the data set.

Create a new data set in the same data model. The following warning is displayed:

"Adding this type of Data Set may break layouts that refer to this data model."

Click OK.

Paste the SQL query into the new data set dialog.

Enter a name for the dataset.

Click OK.

Delete the original data set. The following warning is displayed:

"This item is set as main dataset. Do you want to delete this item?"

Click OK.

Change the data structure in XML View to reflect ROWSET/ROW structure of XML.

Save the data model.

54.7.1.6 Error May Occur When Users Attempt to Use BI Publisher When It Is Integrated with the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog

Attempting to connect to BI Publisher shortly after restarting Oracle Process Management and Notification (OPMN) may result in the following error:

"Error Unauthorized Access: please contact the administrator."

After OPMN is started and running, it takes 3 to 5 minutes to start all the Presentation Services processes needed to log in to BI Publisher.

The workaround is to wait 4 to 5 minutes after OPMN is running before attempting to log in. If the error is encountered, then clear the browser cache before attempting to log in again.

During installation of Oracle Business Intelligence, if you choose to install only Business Intelligence Publisher (in the Configure Component Screen), then BI Publisher scheduler is not configured by the installer. To configure the scheduler follow these steps:

Login to BI Publisher as administrator.

Click the Administration link and navigate to Scheduler Configuration in the System Maintenance section.

Make these settings:

In the Scheduler Selection region, select Quartz as the Scheduler from the list.

In the Database Connection region, set the Database ConnectionType to jndi and enter the JNDI name as jdbc/bip_datasource.

54.7.1.8 Missing Data and Charts in the BI Publisher Sales History Report

The BI Publisher report Sales History Report, which is included with the Oracle BI EE 11g, Release 11.1.1.3 samples in the /Shared Folders/Sample Lite/Published Reporting/Reports folder, has missing data and charts.

From the Subject Areas pane of the Criteria tab, drag and drop the Billed Quantity column from the Base Facts folder of the Sample Sales Lite subject area to the left of the Revenue column in the Selected Columns pane.

Oracle BI Publisher´s Template Builder for Microsoft Word is not compatible with Microsoft Office Live Add-in. The presence of Microsoft Office Live Add-in may cause errors when attempting to install the Template Builder or other unexpected behavior.

The workaround is to uninstall Microsoft Office Live Add-in.

54.7.1.10 Data Source List in BI Publisher Administration Page Includes Data Sources That Are Not Supported

When configuring a JDBC data source connection or an OLAP connection, the list provided in the BI Publisher Add Data Source page includes data sources that are not supported in this release. For the most current list of supported data sources, refer to the System Requirements and Supported Platforms for Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition 11gR1. The system requirements document is available from this link:

It is listed with the documents grouped under the Product Area "Additional Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.x) Certifications."

54.7.1.11 Menu Items Do Not Display When Using Internet Explorer 7 with a Bidirectional Language Preference

If you are using Internet Explorer 7 as your Web browser and you have selected a bidirectional language for your user interface preference (such as Arabic or Hebrew), then the menu options from the global header do not display.

To work around this problem, use Internet Explorer 8 or another supported Web browser.

In the WSDL for each Web service, the endpoint for the WSDL URL location (that is, the value for the <wsdlsoap:address location> element) may be incorrectly set to http://localhost:8080, instead of the correct location of the BI Publisher server installation: [machine name] and [port number].

To work around this problem, navigate to the your xmlpserver deployment directory under webapps\xmlpserver and manually update the <wsdlsoap:address location> element in the following files:

CatalogService.wsdl

ReportService.wsdl

ScheduleService.wsdl

SecurityService.wsdl

54.7.2 Oracle BI Publisher Security Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle BI Publisher security. It includes the following topic:

54.7.2.1 Additional Configuration Required to Secure JMS Queues

By default, the BI Publisher scheduler is configured to use WebLogic Server JMS. The JMS queues are not secured automatically when you configure Oracle Fusion Middleware Security. To secure the JMS queues, you must perform the following:

Enable mutual SSL authentication on bi_server1

Change BI Publisher Scheduler to use T3S protocol for the JMS connection

The Disallow Online RPD Updates option in the Performance tab of the Capacity Management page in Fusion Middleware Control affects whether you can perform both online and offline updates to repository files, using the Administration Tool or other utilities.

54.8.1.2 Use of NQClient (BI ODBC Client) Utility Is Deprecated

The NQClient (BI ODBC Client) utility is fully deprecated in Release 11g (11.1.1.3) and should not be used. Instead, use the nqcmd utility or one of the many widely available third-party ODBC/JDBC tools to satisfy previous NQClient functionality.

In paint.rpd, aggregated data at different levels is stored in the same fact table, which means that the same physical fact table is mapped to the logical table at different levels. To ensure that only rows from one level are returned, WHERE clause filters such as LEVELX = 'MONTH' or LEVELX = 'YEAR' exist in the logical table sources.

In releases prior to Oracle BI EE 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.3), if two logical table sources for the same logical table were mapped to the same physical table, and both logical table sources were used in a query, and both logical table sources had a WHERE clause filter, then the filter from only one of the logical table sources was applied. The other WHERE clause filter was ignored.

Starting with Oracle BI EE 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.3), in this situation, the WHERE clause filters from both logical table sources are applied to the query. Because of this, when paint.rpd queries select attributes from multiple levels, then the query hits multiple logical table sources, and the WHERE clause filters added to the query contradict one another. For example, the following condition is always false because LEVELX cannot be both MONTH and YEAR at the same time:

T863.LEVELX = 'MONTH' and T863.LEVELX = 'YEAR'

If you use paint.rpd for testing, then use one of the following methods to correct the modeling:

Use physical table aliases to ensure that the same physical table is not mapped to the logical table at different levels.

Disable the higher-level logical table source so that the query hits only the detailed logical table source.

Note that paint.rpd is not optimized for this release of Oracle BI EE and should not be used as a basis for any repositories in production environments. Consider using SampleApp.rpd instead. You can find the full version of SampleApp.rpd at:

Due to an issue in the Oracle Call Interface (OCI) client for the Oracle Database 11g, unexpected Oracle BI Server crashes might occur when the BI Server is running on Microsoft Windows platform and there are a significant number of concurrent users attempting to connect to the Oracle Database 11g.

The workaround is to apply a Windows patch bundle for Oracle Database 11.1.0.7, patch bundle 27 or higher.

54.8.3 Oracle BI Administration Tool Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to the Oracle BI Administration Tool. It includes the following topics:

Each version in the MUD location is stored as repository_name.version_number.

In this release of Oracle Business Intelligence, RPD files are now encrypted with a user-specified repository password. As a result, the Administration Tool can only open repository files that have been fully upgraded and encrypted.

To enable the Administration Tool to open versioned MUD repository files and access MUD history, upgrade all repositories in the MUD directory. Upgrade all repository files in the MUD directory with the following naming patterns, where ddd is the version number:

modified subset of repository_name.ddd

repository_name.ddd

To upgrade MUD repositories so that you can access MUD history:

Run bi-init.cmd (or bi-init.sh on UNIX) to launch a command prompt or shell window that is initialized to your Oracle instance. You can find this utility in:

When prompted, enter the 10g administrator password and a new repository encryption password. Do not forget the repository password, because you cannot open the repository without it. To avoid errors, use the same repository password for all repository files in your MUD environment.

Tip: If you have a large number of MUD repositories, then you might want to create a script to automate the MUD repository migration tasks.

54.8.3.4 Patch Available to Hide Selected Consistency Check Warnings

You can download and apply patch 11810367 to hide selected warnings from the Consistency Check Manager. After applying the patch, the following warnings are hidden by default: 39009, 39054, 39055, 39057, and 39059. See Section 54.1.1, "Obtaining Patches from My Oracle Support" for more information about downloading patches.

To make these warnings visible again in the Consistency Check Manager, follow these steps:

Click the Options button in the Consistency Check Manager to open the Consistency Check Warnings dialog.

Deselect the warnings that you want the Consistency Check Manager to display.

Click OK.

You can also add additional warnings to the exclusion list in the Consistency Check Warnings dialog. To do this:

Go to the following directory:

ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/OracleBIServerComponent/coreapplication_obisn

In that directory, create a text file called warn_off.ini. This file must be in ASCII format.

Populate the file with contents similar to the following, listing the warning numbers that you want to add to the exclusion list in the Consistency Check Warnings dialog:

[CCOptions]
CC_WARNINGS_LIST = 39024,39077

Note the following:

All excluded warnings must be on one line and can be separated by a comma, a semicolon, or a space.

You cannot exclude errors. You can only exclude warnings from the Consistency Check Manager.

If you add warning numbers from the default exclusion list (39009, 39054, 39055, 39057, and 39059), they are ignored.

Save and close the file.

Close and then re-open the Consistency Check Manager. The new warnings appear in the Consistency Check Warnings dialog and are selected by default, meaning that those warnings will be excluded from consistency checks.

54.9 Oracle Business Intelligence System Administration Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to Oracle Business Intelligence system administration. It includes the following topics:

If a user tries to sign in to Oracle Business Intelligence using a user name or a password that contains multibyte characters, then the sign-in might fail. This is also the case if Oracle Business Intelligence is configured to work with Oracle Single Sign-On.

This issue has no workaround.

54.9.5 Oracle BI Scheduler Issues and Workarounds

54.10 Oracle Business Intelligence Integration and API Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to integrating Oracle Business Intelligence with other products, including the use of Oracle Business Intelligence APIs. It includes the following topics:

This section describes issues and workarounds related to integrating Oracle Business Intelligence with other products, including the use of Oracle Business Intelligence APIs. It includes the following topics:

The XDK used by Oracle BI Publisher requires the JVM of the Oracle WebLogic Server to run in en-US locale. Otherwise, functions (such as sum) generate values that cannot be formatted with its number format functions.

To work around this problem, in the script startWebLogic.cmd add the following line to set the required options:

If a user name contains superscript letters, then the user cannot perform basic functions within Oracle Business Intelligence. For example, creating a data model for published reporting, uploading a layout template, or scheduling a job.

To work around this problem, do not include superscript letters in a user name.

54.11.2 Help System Localization Issues and Workarounds

This section describes issues and workarounds related to the localization of Oracle Business Intelligence help systems. It includes the following topic:

54.12.3.1 ODBC and JDBC Drivers Incorrectly Included in List of Administration Clients

In Section 4.6.1, "Installing Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools" of Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence, the following components were incorrectly included in the list of administration clients:

Section 4.6.1, "Installing Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools" of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence, incorrectly lists the following as not supported on Microsoft Windows x64:

There is an error in the first paragraph of Chapter 4, "Upgrading Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Upgrade Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence. The paragraph incorrectly reads:

Chapter 3 contains a section named "Adding Totals to Tables and Pivot Tables." That section contains a four-step procedure for adding totals to a view. Step 4 was included in that procedure in error and must be removed.

54.12.5.2 Information on Taking Ownership of Objects

The Properties dialog contains an Ownership area in which you can take ownership of an object in the catalog. The options in this area are not described in the documentation. This area displays only if the proper privileges were assigned to the user, group, or role. You can click links to set the ownership of an object or of an object and all its sub-objects.

54.12.6.1 Error in Appendix A, "Managing the Repository Lifecycle in a Multiuser Development Environment"

Appendix A, "Managing the Repository Lifecycle in a Multiuser Development Environment" includes the following sentence:

"The RCU tables can be shared by multiple development sandboxes without conflict."

This sentence is incorrect. Each separate Oracle Business Intelligence system requires its own set of RCU database schemas. See Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence for information about RCU schema requirements.

Oracle Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition provides information about connecting to Hyperion Financial Management data sources. The instructions work if you are using a Hyperion Financial Management 9.3.1 client, but do not work for Hyperion Financial Management 11g clients.

Follow these steps to connect to Hyperion Financial Management data sources with an 11g client:

Open opmn.xml for editing. You can find opmn.xml at:

ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/OPMN/opmn/opmn.xml

Locate the ias-component tag for the JavaHost process. For example:

<ias-component id="coreapplication_obijh1">

Within the environment tag, add new variables required for Hyperion Financial Management, using the following example as a guide. Update the actual values as appropriate for your installation.

Section 19.3.2, "Manually Configuring for Graphs and Gauges," describes the DefaultImageType element. This element is no longer supported, and its description must be removed from the guide.

54.12.7.2 Clarification of CaseInsensitiveMode Element

Appendix E provides an example of the section of the instanceconfig.xml file in which you can include the CaseInsensitiveMode element. The correct parent element of QueryManager is missing for CaseInsensitiveMode. The proper syntax is as follows:

Section 22.3.2 "Specifying Defaults for Styles and Skins" contains sample code from the instanceconfig.xml file for working with the DefaultStyle and DefaultSkin elements. The parent element for these elements should be UI, so the sample code should read as follows:

54.12.7.4 Changing Ownership of Catalog Objects

Section 18.6.4 describes how to work with the properties of objects in the catalog. The section includes a step for selecting the owner of an object. The section must be updated to state that the Owner list now includes the name that you used to log into Catalog Manager. Therefore, you can use this list to select yourself as the owner of the object, if you have the appropriate permissions. You can select Apply Recursively to take ownership of the object and all its sub-objects.

54.12.7.5 Updates of Information About the Catalog

The following sections provide information for inclusion in Chapter 18, "Configuring and Managing the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog."

54.12.7.5.1 Guidelines for Object Names

Each object in the catalog is stored in its own file. For example, an analysis called Analysis 1 is stored in a file named Analysis1. The object name that is visible to users, such as Analysis 1, is referred to as the logical object name.

The following list provides guidelines for object names:

No restrictions exist on which characters are allowed in the logical name of an object in the catalog, as long as the characters are valid Unicode characters. The following are valid logical names:

Hello World
Profit / Loss
% Sales * $ Cost ~~ $ "Expense"?

The length of the logical object name must not exceed 256 Unicode characters.

Use care when building a catalog path. It is very common to see code that assumes the forward slash (/) is always a path separator. Always verify your path code with an object name such as "Profit / Loss".

When you pass a catalog search filter using SOAP, you must escape the following characters:

54.12.7.5.2 Handling Users of the Catalog

The catalog is designed to scale to thousands of concurrent users. To achieve this, the catalog adheres to the following guidelines:

The average user typically only reads from the catalog and rarely, if ever, writes to it. In Release 11g, each user is constantly and automatically updating his or her Most Recently Used file, but each user's "read" operations still far outweigh the user's "writes" operations. Therefore, the read-to-write ratio is typically at least 100 to 1.

While a locking mechanism guarantees that only one user can write to an object at a time, it is rare for multiple users to attempt to write simultaneously to the same object. A feature called "lazy locking" allows users to continue reading an object even when another user is updating that object.

Modern file systems cache "small" files directly inside the directory record, such that reading any information on a directory simultaneously loads all small files directly into the operating system's memory cache. Therefore, it is good practice to keep files in the catalog "small," especially the frequently "read" .atr metadata files. When these metadata files remain small, then all the .atr files in a directory are loaded into memory with one physical hard disk read. Every file that exceeds the "small" threshold adds another physical hard disk read, which can cause a 100% degradation for each large file. In other words, use care when considering storing arbitrary "Properties" in .atr files.

Reading an object's .atr metadata file using NFS is far slower than reading it directly from a local disk. For this reason, Presentation Services additionally caches all .atr files internally. This cache can become briefly "stale" when another node in the cluster writes data to the file that is newer than the data that is cached by the current node. Therefore, all nodes are refreshed as per the MaxAgeMinutes element in the instanceconfig.xml, whose default for a cluster is 5 minutes. This default setting commonly achieves the best trade-off between the possibility of stale data and the known performance impact. (The default for an environment without clusters is 60 minutes.)

54.12.7.5.3 Handling Heterogeneous Nodes

To allow heterogeneous nodes in a cluster, the catalog adheres to the following guidelines:

The maximum length for the name of an object on disk is 256 bytes, which is 64 Unicode characters. The logical name is restricted to 256 Unicode characters. To adhere to this restriction, logical names greater than 32 characters are hashed.

The maximum length for the name of a path on disk is 32KB, which is 8000 Unicode characters. The logical path is restricted to 16000 Unicode characters.

All path names on disk are all lowercase. The logical path name allows mixed case, but is still case-insensitive.

Certain characters are not allowed for path names on disk, while the logical path name allows all characters. For example, Windows systems disallow certain characters such as the colon (:), so those characters are mapped using standard HTML escape sequences. For example, the period character (.) becomes "%2e".

Certain file names are not allowed on disk, while the logical object name has no restrictions. For example, Windows systems disallow certain file names such as COM, so those names are mapped using standard HTML escape sequences. For example, "com" becomes "co%6d".

54.12.7.5.4 Handling Catalog Files on Various Platforms

Keep the following points in mind when handling catalog files on various platforms:

For UNIX Platforms: UNIX kernels must commonly be configured to allow more than 4000 subdirectories per directory. See Chapter 18 for information on the HashUserHomeDirectories element.

For Windows Platforms:

When users want to navigate catalog files using a tool such as Microsoft Windows Explorer, then they want the catalog structure based on a short path name such as c:/obi/demo, rather than the long default path name. Note that such navigation is not recommended.

FAT is not supported, and NTFS is required.

Performance on Windows platforms degrades noticably when more than 8000 files exist in a single directory. Because each catalog object has two files (the data file and the .atr metadata file), it is strongly recommended that you not store more than 4000 catalog objects in a single directory. See Chapter 18 for information on the HashUserHomeDirectories element.

Windows Explorer does not handle long path names properly, and it is recommended to not Windows Explorer to navigate the internal structure of the catalog. While the file system can handle path names as long as 32KB and Presentation Services is not negatively affected, you cannot use Windows Explorer with any path name that is longer than approximately 2KB.

Because a single Unicode character can require as many as 4 bytes, you might be unable to use Windows Explorer with path names of only 500 Unicode characters. This limitation does not affect Presentation Services. Because of this limitation, place the catalog in a top-level directory, such as c:\mycatalog\sales.

Various third-party FTP programs have issues handling '%' escape sequences, which often results in a renamed file that is doubly escaped. For example, a file that is named sa%2epaint (whose logical name is SA.Paint) is incorrectly renamed to sa%252epaint (whose logical name is SA%2ePaint).

Avoid using an FTP program directly against a catalog. Instead, download and use the 7-Zip utility to compress the catalog files, then use an FTP program to transfer the resulting compressed file.

54.12.7.5.6 Validating the Catalog

Over time, inconsistencies can develop in the catalog as links are broken, users are deleted, or NFS file system issues are encountered. These inconsistencies can eventually lead to incorrect behavior, such as the inability to edit an agent's recipient list. You can periodically take the production system offline and validate the catalog, to be informed of and to take corrective action on inconsistencies.

54.12.7.5.7 Performing a Basic Validation of the Catalog

Use the following procedure to perform a basic validation of the catalog.

Start Presentation Services to run the validation according to the values that you specified in the instanceconfig.xml file.

Stop Presentation Services.

Create a backup copy of the instanceconfig.xml file in which you added the validation elements, renaming the file similar to instanceconfig_validate.xml. In this way, you have a version of the file to use as a starting point for subsequent validations.

Restore the backup version of the instanceconfig.xml that you created earlier to use as the current version.

Start Presentation Services.

54.12.7.5.8 Specifying the Elements for Validating the Catalog

As part of the process of validating the catalog, you include elements in the instanceconfig.xml file that run the validation when you restart Presentation Services. The following procedure describes how to edit the instanceconfig.xml file to include these elements.

To specify the element for validating the catalog:

Open the instanceconfig.xml file for editing.

Locate the Catalog section in which you must add the elements that are described in Table 54-1.

Include the elements and their ancestor element as appropriate, as shown in the following example. In this example, the validation runs when Presentation Services starts. Inconsistent accounts (for example, deleted users), links, and objects are removed. Inconsistent users' home directory names are logged but directories are not removed.

OnStartupAndExit — Performs the validation when Presentation Services both starts and stops. This value allows re-running of the validation, performing as many cycles of Report and Clean until the catalog is as clean as appropriate.

If this value is not None, then all privileges and each object's ACLs in the entire catalog are cleaned of dead accounts, regardless of the settings of the other Validate-related elements.

None

ValidateAccounts

Verifies that all information about users, roles, and groups in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

ValidateHomes

Verifies that all information about home directories in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

ValidateItems

Verifies that all information about objects in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

ValidateLinks

Verifies that all information about links in the catalog is consistent. Values are described in the list after this table.

None

The elements have the values that are described in the following list:

None — Specifies that no validation is performed.

Report — Specifies that details about each inconsistent object are written to the sawlog.log file.

Clean — Specifies that details about each inconsistent object are written to the sawlog.log file and that each object is removed from the catalog.

54.12.7.5.9 Updates for XML Files and Text Strings

Section 18.8.2.1 "XML File Format for Searching for and Replacing Text Strings" must be replaced with the following text.

In the search and replace XML file, you use an action element to identify each text string to search for and replace. The action elements are contained in a commands element.

The action element has the following attributes:

command — Specifies whether you want to replace text, a column name, a subject area name, a table formula, or an entire formula. Valid values are:

textReplace — Replaces text other than the name of a table, column, formula, or subject area.

The textReplace action occurs first, before other node-specific actions (for example, before renameSubjectArea).

Table 54-2 provides sample strings for use with the regex syntax in search criteria.

Table 54-2 Using regex Syntax in Search Criteria

Search String Entered

Result

a

Adds wildcards before and after your search string (for example, *a*), enabling the search to return results that contain the letter "a".

^a

Adds a wildcard after your search string (for example, a*), enabling the search to return results that begin with the letter "a".

a$

Adds a wildcard before your search string (for example, *a), enabling the search to return results that end with the character "a".

a\*

Searches explicitly for strings containing a character followed by an asterisk (*) for example, "a*".

?

Use a question mark (?) with a character and an asterisk (*) to return zero (0) or more occurrences of a character. For example ?a* returns zero or more occurrences of the character "a".

newValue — Specifies the replacement text.

ignoreCase — Ignores case when set to true, but becomes case-sensitive when set to false. The default value is false.

54.12.7.6 Removal of Section on Including Links with Analyses on Dashboards

The "Configuring and Managing Analyses and Dashboards" chapter of the guide includes the "Including Links with Analyses on Dashboards" section. This section is not applicable for this release and must be removed from the guide.

Section 5.3, "Configuring the Web Server to Use HTTPS Protocol" contains the following information:

These properties are set by editing MW_Home/user/projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/bin/startManagedWebLogic.sh (or .bat), and adding the properties to the end of the JAVA_OPTIONS value. Note that any \ character in a path must be escaped with another \ character.

For example, the following edits are made if using the demonstration Oracle WebLogic Server certificate:

The "New Features" section and Chapter 3, "Integrating Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services With Oracle WebCenter" provide information on using JDeveloper to create and configure a WebCenter application that integrates with the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog. This information is in error.

Also in error is the information on the WebCenter in the following sections:

A fully productized integration of Oracle Business Intelligence with Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle WebCenter is not available with this Oracle Business Intelligence release and the 11.1.1.3.0 releases of Oracle JDeveloper and Oracle WebCenter.